I would love to see the cost/feasibility of boosting to a stable/graveyard orbit. The ISS is massive and not built for that kind of maneuver, but it would be great to be able to preserve it for the future.
this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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Does seem like a massive waste to just get rid of it. Feel like it could be repurposed for other use
Granted, its international status probably makes any decisions about utilizing it for something else difficult
It's too old to be retrofitted and it wasn't designed to last forever.
The computer systems on board controlling all the essential systems, I'd have to assume given the age of the station and when everything was designed, they'd have used 32 bit computing tech because that was what was prevalent when the station launched.
A lot of people say "boost it into graveyard orbit" but another problem is that physically it was not designed to last forever, and just over general wear and tear, it will begin to disintegrate and rain fragments, so it is much safer to deorbit and decomm.
Fair point, safety should be the primary concern.
Just unfortunate that it can’t be preserved as a space-tourism destination or something of the sort. Would be neat if it was made into a museum something
I would also make it a museum too, but I think it'd be more feasible to bring some modules down to Earth and make them tourist attractions.
I say give it to them, billionaires today have no class, just take it and give it to our fellow nerds. Problem solved! Elon was going gamble it away anyway.
Wouldn't it be awesome if a bunch of rastas started squatting the station while listening to AI generated dub music, like in Neuromancer?
Pay a billion to burn it up?
It'd cost a lot less to put it in a higher orbit for a thousand years where it could be a museum for space travellers.
You can't do that because it will physically fall apart. That's the main issue with boosting it up higher and just leaving it there. It was never designed to be existing for a thousand years, and eventually wear and tear will make the station naturally break apart. It's significantly more dangerous for small fragments to drop over time as compared to a deorbit and decomm. At least the deorbit is planned, while the disintegration would be pretty random and not fun to deal with.
You can’t do that because it will physically fall apart.
Don't know where you ever got that idea. It raises and lowers itself all of the time these days to avoid debris.
It could easily be raised to 2-5000 miles by adding energy from a similar small engine (with a decent-sized fuel tank) over a few months/years.
'Wear and tear' from what? Micrometeorites? The orbits of any 'small fragments' (of what?) would decay very slowly and instantly burn-up many centuries later.